. . . Daniel Barenboim's live Verdi Requiem benefits from a spacious recording that allows the intimate detail of the music to register, as well as the grandeur of its largest gestures. From the slow and solemn opening, too, Barenboim's interpretative view is grand in conception, with the La Scala performers offering him sufficient depth and richness of tone to paint the piece with a huge palette of colours. He's responsive to its harmonic contours . . . the four soloists form a quartet finely balanced in vocal weight and proficiency. Anja Harteros's soprano combines ethereality with substance, resulting in subtly coloured expressivity. Elina Garanca's mezzo feels perfectly scaled to the music. Jonas Kaufmann combines complete technical mastery with vivid tonal variety and commitment to the text . . . [René Pape's] vocalism is delivered on an equally empowered scale to that of his colleagues . . . this is an impressive account.

Record Review /
George Hall,
BBC Music Magazine (London) / 01. March 2013

. . . Jonas Kaufmann, no less, is the ringing tenor; Anja Harteros's soprano wrenches the heart; mezzo Elina Garanca supplies warmth and cream, while René Pape's bass stands firm, a bulwark against any storm . . . [Kaufmann is] trumpeting with every note, and tender beauties are . . . floated on high. Harteros reaches her own peak in the aching loveliness of the final "Requiem aeternam", her voice the rapturous embodiment of the Requiem text's "perpetual light", while Garanca's mezzo shines throughout with a glow probably visible from outer space . . . All told, it's a thrilling account.

Record Review /
Geoff Brown,
The Times (London) / 13. September 2013

A superb quartet of soloists . . . stamp their authority on this terrific performance.

. . . this is bravura stuff, right from the opening "Requiem aeternam", the huge choir operating with maximum dynamic range before the explosive series of solo "Kyrie eleisons" lift the roof off, an extraordinary display of muscular sensitivity that sets the tone for the percussive barrage punctuating and underscoring the choral waves of "Dies irae". "This day of wrath", indeed! the performance continues at this intensity, with several standout moments before the triumphant "Libera me" sequence.

Record Review /
Andy Gill,
Independent (London) / 21. September 2013

. . . an optimum line-up of soloists for our time . . . [Anja Harteros]: the German soprano . . . conveys the anxiety of the soul in torment as vividly as ever . . . Garanca's lush mezzo sounds like an Amneris in waiting in the "Lux aeterna"; Pape is a rock in the bass soloist's pronouncements . . . I wouldn't be without Kaufmann's searing "Ingemisco" and moving, introverted "Hostias".

Four of the most exciting singers of the day make this into a predictably all-star recording. And with Daniel Barenboim as conductor, the performance is deeply musical, scrupulously balanced and has equally acute dynamics. The recording . . . is as clear as one could wish. The soprano Anja Harteros is superbly accurate and sings the "Libera me" with powerful emotion. But as so often, the mezzo soprano, in this case Elina Garanca, steals the honours with her moving and wonderful account of the "Liber scriptus". The tenor is the incomparable Jonas Kaufmann, who seems destined to make one think anew about everything he sings. René Pape's bass is as thrilling and reliable as ever.

It's a thoughtful, considered interpretation . . . The conflict between drama and devotion at the work's centre is carefully explored but tellingly left unresolved at the close . . . The choral singing is strong . . . Soprano Anja Harteros sounds ravishing . . .

Record Review /
Tim Ashley ,
The Guardian (London) / 10. October 2013

. . . [the "Dies Irae"] packs a wallop, and the Decca sound, even in two-channel, is quite spectacular. But most of all what impresses is the intense emotion of this reading, done live in Milan. The singers, to a man or woman, are superb . . . The chorus gives quarter to no one, and the orchestra has lived with this work since the premiere, knowing it better than anyone in the world. Barenboim softens some of the edges, making for a more humane Requiem, and shapes the work lovingly and with great affection . . . Barenboim implodes, seeking resolution within the core of the work as opposed to firing rockets of wrath on the audience, and the results are brilliant and thrilling . . . [this Verdi Requiem] is the best I have heard for a number of years.

. . . without an Italian within earshot (save for the orchestra and chorus), will the remarkable combination of echt-piety and Italian opera that inhabits Verdi's Requiem be well served? Indeed it is -- and it may just be a matter of how superbly the notes are played and sung, with all of Verdi's very challenging dynamic markings observed (from ppppp to fffff) and every participant on top form . . . Anja Harteros is a lovely soprano soloist, singing with authority and fine, spinto tone; Elina Garanca, freed from having to create a character on stage, uses her warm, beautiful tone . . . with ease and a wise ability to blend with the others; Jonas Kaufmann sings with long breath and a tensile strength alternating with tenderness (his "Hostias" is particularly glorious); and René Pape . . . uses his bass voice handsomely and dramatically. Daniel Barenboim goes for extremes of mood and volume and makes them all effective . . . The huge moments -- the "Dies Irae" and climax to the "Libera me" -- are spectacular. This is a Verdi Requiem to give great pleasure . . .

Record Review /
Robert Levine,
ClassicsToday.com / 19. November 2013

. . . the new bunch of soloiosts are superior. Harteros' vibrant voice can turn pure and gleaming when required and Garanca sounds marvellously rich and idiomatic. Pape is suitably imposing, intelligently singing "on the words" . . . Barenboim's grasp of long term structure makes this performance work . . . this is a dark and disturbing alternate view.

All of the elements necessary for a successful performance of Verdi's large-scale masterpiece are to be found here -- powerfully expressive choral singing, expert orchestral work, insightful conducting from Daniel Barenboim, and a superb vocal quartet. Leading the team of soloists is Anja Harteros, who proves capable of sailing her radiant soprano over the vast orchestral and choral forces in climactic passages, yet able to spin out the finest thread of a pianissimo high B-flat in "Libera me" . . . Mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca's velvety tones and sensitive phrasing are exemplary, and she and Harteros render the "Agnus Dei" soprano-mezzo duet with perfect synchronization of pitch, style and articulation. Bass René Pape sings securely . . . and produces a rich, robust sound . . . Jonas Kaufmann employs his sinewy, ringing tenor to brilliant effect . . . [he] sings with a heroic quality . . . The Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala give a dynamic, first-rate reading of Verdi's score. It is a pleasure to hear such full-bodied, impassioned and well-tuned singing from the chorus -- particularly as its members prove just as adept at maintaining energized vocalism during quiet and reflective passages as they are when blowing the roof off the hall in ''Dies irae." The orchestra plays superbly under Barenboim's baton . . . Decca's sound is clear and extremely vivid -- particularly for a live recording . . .

. . . this is as starry a lineup as any version from the Golden Age . . . It all opens well, with the La Scala chorus's mutterings of "requiem" being deliberate but genuinely hushed, and the movement builds up with warmth and smoothly contoured lines to that climatic entry of the soloists. And what a distinctive bunch they are. It is hard to be unimpressed by Jonas Kaufrnann's impassioned, rough-hewn delivery. For all the hype about him, what is not remarked enough on is how classically Latinate he can sound, stopping just short of a Gigli sob. Despite the brutal, almost Jon Vickers clenched tone, Kaufmann rides ensembles very well and respects dynamics; the "Ingemisco" is a model of subtlety. Even finer is Elina Garanca; luminous and passionate in phrasing, soulful and dramatic without resorting to chest voice, she can be rated as highly as Christa Ludwig or Fiorenza Cossotto in this work . . . The orchestra . . . sounds very plush under Barenboim. Textures are refined, yet not too blended, and they seem to respond to the dignified, if at-arms-length, approach from the podium . . . [the sound] is as full-bodied and plush as the performance, with any audience noise spookily ostracized. The notes are good too.